Romney Wants to Turn Back the Clock in Massachusetts

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is supporting a new initiative to ban both same-sex marriage and civil unions in the state constitution. In a stunning display of homophobia in action, Romney is quoted in the Washington Post (link now stale) as saying, “If they said you have to have one or the other, that Massachusetts is going to have one or the other, then I’d rather have civil unions than gay marriage. But I’d rather have neither.”

The article doesn’t say why he has such a strong anti-equality position, but I think it demonstrates how far some people are willing to go to ensure that lesbian and gay citizens remain second class citizens. In the little over a year since same-sex marriages have been legal in Massachusetts there doesn’t seem to be any sign of the fall of civilization. No heterosexual union has been hurt. If there is any such evidence, bring it to me.

In broader terms, Romney’s actions illustrate how much hatred is alive in our society. When people say that discrimination is proper and diversity is not to be tolerated, our society falls well short of the ideals upon which it was founded.